Watch the storyPolice say Bobby Lipscom, a man in his 50s, was walking home around one o'clock in the morning Saturday after visiting a friend at ECMC. When Lipscom reached a vacant lot near Moselle and Genesee police say he was confronted by two men wearing hoodies. They started scuffling with Lipscom.

"That's when the victim produced a small knife, box cutter-type knife," says Michael DeGeorge, Buffalo Police spokesperson, "He ended up cutting both of the suspects."

Lipscom was able to fend off the two attackers who police say are men half his age. Then Lipscom called 9-1-1. Police arrived and arrested 22-year old Corvair Harge and 21-year old Jason Tyus. The two men face charges for second degree robbery, but first they're healing from their stab wounds. Both were at ECMC Saturday night, one in critical condition and the other in stable condition. Lipscom did not need any medical treatment. Police says his attackers likely did not think he had a weapon. "Probably to a certain extent he probably did surprise his attackers by having the box cutter knife," says DeGeorge.

Police say they have no plans to charge Lipscom for stabbing the two suspects.

Police in Durham Region say a 64-year-old Whitby man derailed an Oshawa drugstore robbery this week when he beat the would-be robber with a cane.

Officers were called to Central Pharmacy on Simcoe St. N. for a report of a robbery in progress shortly before noon on Monday.

When they arrived, they found a suspect being detained by another man, who was armed with a walking cane.

Witnesses told police a man carrying a large knife and wearing a stocking over his face entered the store and demanded drugs from the pharmacist.

At that point, a customer who saw the robbery in progress jumped into action. Removing a cane from a nearby display case, he hit the would-be robber several times, disarming him and keeping him at bay until police arrived.

Police say they also found an accomplice inside the store and arrested him without incident.

Walter William Wilson, 43, and Lee Silverthorne, 25, both of Bruce Street in Oshawa, are charged with robbery and possession of weapons dangerous. Wilson was also charged with wearing a disguise with intent

Anyone with information about this incident is asked to contact Durham Region police at (905) 579-1520 ext. 5360. Anonymous tips can be made to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

Karate newsagent challenges thief A knife-wielding robber met his match when he tried to steal money from a shopkeeper trained in karate. The man ran into the Edinburgh shop owned by Mohammed Afzah, 39, a former bodyguard for the prime minister of Pakistan, and demanded money.

The would-be thief turned on his heels and fled empty-handed from the shop during the raid at 2100 BST on Sunday.

Mr Afzah, who was born in Pakistan, spent eight years in the country's security police.

I stepped out from behind the till and assumed my karate attack position Mohammed Afzah Shopkeeper

He was trained in hand-to-hand combat and anti-terrorist techniques before becoming a police bodyguard in Lahore.

He was tasked with guarding politicians and VIPs, including then-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at his official residence.

Mr Afzah said: "The guy ran into my shop and shouted 'give me the money, give me the money'. At first I thought he was joking until he pulled out a kitchen knife and told me to hand over all my takings.

"I stepped out from behind the till and assumed my karate attack position while I shouted 'I'm ready, come on then'.

"He was waving the knife about so I moved towards him with my hands positioned to disarm him like I had been trained in the army."

Cult hero

Mr Afzah, who had been cashing up about £500 in his Stockbridge Newsagent shop in Deanhaugh Street, shouted at the robber to get out - and the terrified raider was only too happy to oblige.

Mr Afzah, who left the police nine years ago, added: "I was trained in many aspects including how to take a knife from someone before turning it on them. Fortunately I didn't have to put this into action."

The shopkeeper said he would not encourage people to take the law into their own hands, but said he was inspired by the actions of Glasgow Airport baggage handler John Smeaton, who became a cult hero after helping the police.

He said: "I would do the same again although it's the first time I've had to put my training into practice in this country.

"I have so much respect for John Smeaton and the other guys who stood up to the terrorists in Glasgow.

"They showed so much courage and were protecting their property, in their case it was their country though which was incredibly admirable."

Police are now studying his shop's CCTV footage in the hope it identifies the attempted robber.

A Lothian and Borders Police spokesman said: "We want anyone who was in the area at the time, or who saw the man running away from the scene, to contact police."

The suspect is described as being white, about 6ft tall, aged between 30 and 35, with short brown hair and an Edinburgh accent.

He was wearing a short-sleeved black shirt, black trousers and light coloured shoes.

Some are calling a former U.S. Marine a hero for shooting two men — killing one — during the botched robbery of a sandwich shop in Plantation. But the men's friends and family want to know how he could gun them down and not be charged.

John Lovell had just finished dinner at about 11: 15 p.m. Wednesday when, Plantation police say, two men armed with guns rushed inside a Subway shop and demanded cash. After robbing the store, the men turned to Lovell. They wanted his money, police said.

But like his attackers, Lovell was armed.

The retired military man opened fire, shooting dead Donicio Arrindell, 22, of North Lauderdale, and critically injuring Fredrick Gadson, 21, of Fort Lauderdale.

Lovell, 71, of Plantation, has a valid concealed weapons permit and is not expected to be charged in the shooting, said police spokesman Detective Robert Rettig. Gadson, however, faces multiple felony charges that could include murder, he said. Under Florida law, anyone who commits a felony such as armed robbery resulting in a death can be held accountable for the capital offense.

"He feared for his life," Rettig said of Lovell. "And if he's in fear for his life, then he has a right to defend himself, even if it means severe bodily injury or death."

Florida law gives people the right of "self-defense without the duty to retreat." That means individuals can use deadly force virtually anywhere to prevent death or serious injury.

Lovell could not be reached for comment despite calls and visits to his home.

His attorney, Wesley White, of Yulee, near Jacksonville, said he has known Lovell for 19 years and described him as a "quiet Clint Eastwood-type you don't want to mess with." He is a former Marine who was a member of the helicopter detail that transported Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, White said.

Lovell, a retired Pan-Am and Delta Airline pilot, has held a concealed weapons permit since September 1990. Three months earlier, Plantation police had arrested him for having a loaded .9 mm and three extra clips behind the driver's seat of a Corvette without proper permits for the gun. The Broward State's Attorney's Office declined to file charges in that case.

According to a police statement, Arrindell ordered Lovell to hand over his wallet. He intentionally dropped it on the floor and refused to pick it up, saying he was afraid. That's when Arrindell ordered him into the women's restroom.

"The victim believed he would be executed and when he noticed [Arrindell] distracted ... reached behind his back, removed his loaded .45 caliber handgun from his holster and fired seven rounds," the statement said.

Arrindell was struck twice — once in the head and once in the stomach — and collapsed. Officers found him face down, wearing sunglasses and a bandanna, with a gun near his left hand. Gadson was hit in the chest and ran from the store. Police dogs found him in the hedges of a nearby office building and bank.

Both men were taken to Broward General Medical Center, where Arrindell died and Gadson was in critical condition Thursday.

Sebastian Shakespeare, 23, of Lauderhill, was going to buy a sandwich at the Subway at 1949 N. Pine Island Road when he saw Lovell, gun in hand, standing over Arrindell. A former employee, Shakespeare worked the night shift and often worried about getting robbed.

He said Lovell did a good deed. "A civilian was a hero."

Lovell's neighbor agreed.

"If I was in the same situation ... I hope I could've done the same thing," said Bryan Sklar, 45.

But Gadson's grandmother, Rosa Jones, said: "He ain't no hero. He is a murderer and God will serve justice."

She and her husband, Ivory Jones, pastor of a Fort Lauderdale church, sat on their front porch in Fort Lauderdale on Thursday wondering how a man could shoot two people and not go to jail.

They said their grandson sometimes hung with the wrong crowd but never got into legal trouble. According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, he has no arrest record. They said Gadson, who never finished high school, got tired of low-wage jobs and was pursuing his GED.

Arrindell, friends said, found himself in a similar situation: no high school diploma and working odd jobs. So he went back to school. He was a man with past troubles, including a 2004 arrest for carrying a concealed weapon, but he was improving his life, they said. He recently bought a car and had a girlfriend.

Kathy East, 54, whose son went to school with Arrindell, said she took him in two years ago when he and his mother had a falling out.

Bill Barnes says he was scratching off a losing $2 lottery ticket inside a gas station when he felt a hand slip into his front-left pants pocket, where he had $300 in cash. < o>He immediately grabbed the person's wrist with his left hand and started throwing punches with his right, landing six or seven blows before a store manager intervened."I guess he thought I was an easy mark," Barnes, 72, told The Grand Rapids Press for a story Tuesday. He's anything but an easy mark: Barnes served in the Marines, was an accomplished Golden Gloves boxer and retired after 20 years as an iron worker.

Jesse Daniel Rae, the 27-year-old Newaygo County man accused of trying to pick Barnes' pocket, was arraigned Monday in Rockford District Court on one count of unarmed robbery, a 15-year felony. Barnes said he had just withdrawn the money from a bank machine and put it in the pocket of his shorts before driving to the Marathon service station and Next Door Food Store in Comstock park, a Grand Rapids suburb. He remembers noticing a patron acting suspiciously, asking the price of different brands of cigarettes and other items. While turned away, Barnes felt the hand in his pocket, so he took action. "I guess I acted on instinct," he said.

Kent County sheriff's deputies said the store manager quickly came around the counter. The three of them struggled through the front door, where two witnesses said the manager slammed Rae to the ground and held him there. "There was blood everywhere," said another manager on duty, Abby Ostrom, 25. Barnes was a regional runner-up in Golden Gloves competition in the novice and open divisions before enlisting in the Marines in 1956.He lived most of his adult life in Comstock Park with his wife, Patr icia, before recently moving to Ottawa County. The couple have three children.

After retiring as an iron worker, he now works part-time as a starter at a golf course.Barnes said he'd probably do the same thing again under the same circumstances, if for no other reason than what he would face back home. "I wouldn't want my wife to give me hell for lettin' that guy get my money," he said with a smile.

OCEANSIDE – A liquor store clerk shot and wounded a gunman during an attempted armed robbery on Saturday evening.Police were called to the Big Liquor store on North Redondo Drive near North River Road at 9:42 p.m. Police said they believe the clerk shot the robber after he entered the store and demanded money at gunpoint.

The suspect, a 20-year-old Marine lance corporal, was found around a block from the crime scene, where he had collapsed as a result of his wounds. His injuries are not believed to be life-threatening and he was transported by air ambulance to a local trauma center for treatment.

Detectives are trying to piece together whether the crime is linked to eight other hold-ups at liquor stores in the city.

A San Luis Obispo mechanic who allegedly stabbed two men during a fight in San Luis Obispo last week will not face criminal charges, the county District Attorney’s Office said Tuesday.

Adam Caraveo, 24, of San Luis Obispo was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon on June 5 after a fight broke out between him and four traveling magazine salesmen.

Deputy District Attorney Louise Comar reviewed the case and determined there was sufficient evidence that Caraveo was acting in self defense, said Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Brown.

Four men from out of the area were arrested on suspicion of battery, including Jason Iorio, 23, of Belvedere, Ill.; John Vuras, 19, of Las Cruces, N.M.; Michael Moorefield, 24, of Phoenix; and Robert Thrasher, 23, of Independence, Mo.

Three of the four pleaded no contest and were found guilty of battery by the judge last week, Deputy District Attorney Craig Von- Rooyen said. They were sentenced to three years’ probation and 15 days in jail and must pay restitution to the victim, Caraveo. The fourth will appear in court later this month. The group of salesmen

had apparently driven to San Luis Obispo from Los Angeles early on June 5 to sell magazine subscriptions door to door before heading to Monterey. The group was in a van when an unknown person in the van yelled a derogatory remark at Caraveo, who was on the 300 block of Higuera Street.

Iorio, Vuras, Moorefield and Thrasher allegedly got out of the van and attacked Caraveo. Caraveo pulled out a knife and stabbed Moorefield and Thrasher, police said.

Moorefield and Thrasher were treated for minor stab wounds at Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center in San Luis Obispo. Moorefield was stabbed in the back, and Thrasher was stabbed in both arms, police said.

HARTFORD, Conn. -- A homeowner fought back overnight against two burglary suspects, stabbing one to death.

Channel 3 Eyewitness News reporter Hena Daniels reported two people entered a house in the 100 block of Park Terrace near Pope Park at about 1:30 a.m.

Hartford police said two men entered the three-family home under renovation, which has been burglarized in the past.

Investigators said the homeowner retrieved a knife from a bedroom and tried to escape.

"The homeowner interrupted a burglary with two suspects. A struggle ensued, one of the suspects was stabbed and the other is at large," Hartford police Lt. Patrick Jobes said.

Police said the burglar who was stabbed in the chest tried to run but fell a few feet from the house, leaving a trail of blood. Daniels reported emergency medical crews could barely find a pulse. The man later died at Hartford Hospital

Police said they do not believe the homeowner and the burglars knew each other. Hartford Police Chief Daryl Roberts said the homeowner has been honest and has cooperated fully.

"We don't believe that there was any malice on his part," Roberts said. "He was trying to actually get away... he saw the guys in the house, fled to the bedroom, and thought, 'I need to get out of house,' and then one of the burgulars actually came after him."

Police have not yet released the identity of the man who died. Police have called the death a "justifiable homicide."

Police said they believe the only thing taken from the house was a Samurai sword.

The homeowner said that he has been burglarized several times recently. Residents of the neighborhood told Eyewitness News that burglaries have become common in the area.

Shortly before landing, Bob Hayden and a flight attendant had agreed on a signal: When she waved the plastic handcuffs, he would discreetly leave his seat and restrain an unruly passenger who had frightened some of the 150 people on board a Minneapolis-to-Boston flight Saturday night with erratic behavior.

Hayden, a 65-year-old former police commander, had enlisted a gray-haired gentleman sitting next to him to assist. The man turned out to be a former US Marine.

"I had looked around the plane for help, and all the younger guys had averted their eyes. When I asked the guy next to me if he was up to it, all he said was, 'Retired captain. USMC.' I said, 'You'll do,' " Hayden recalled. "So, basically, a couple of grandfathers took care of the situation."

The incident on Northwest Airlines Flight 720 ended peacefully, but not before Hayden, a former Boston police deputy superintendent and former Lawrence police chief, and the retired Marine had handcuffed one man and stood guard over another until the plane touched down safely at Logan International Airport around 7:50 p.m.

State Police troopers escorted two men off the flight. Trooper Thomas Murphy, a State Police spokesman, said one of the men was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital for "an unspecified medical issue, possibly mental health."

He said State Police detectives will investigate whether the man's behavior should be treated as a medical or criminal matter. A second man escorted off the plane identified himself as the unruly passenger's brother. Murphy said police would not release the names of the men, who Hayden said appeared to be in their 30s or 40s.

Dean Breest, a spokesman for Northwest, confirmed that "there was an incident that required State Police to come on board the aircraft" but declined further comment.

Hayden said the unruly man's behavior upset some passengers. One told Hayden the man had said, "Your lives are going to change today forever," as he shouted and refused to take his seat before takeoff and at various times during the nearly three-hour flight. He said that at one point the man lay on his back and was screaming, moaning, and thrashing on the floor.

"Some people were crying," Hayden said. "I thought it might be a diversion. I kept scanning the back of the plane to see if anyone was going to rush forward. The flight attendants did a great job, literally surrounding the two guys who were making all the noise. I told one of the flight attendants I was a retired police officer and would be willing to assist, so we agreed on a signal."

When the captain announced preparations for landing, the man jumped up shouting, the flight attendant held up the handcuffs, and Hayden and the Marine came bounding down the aisle. Hayden said he and the retired Marine, whose name he never got, received an ovation from fellow passengers, and "some free air miles."

Hayden's wife of 42 years, Katie, who was also on the flight, was less impressed. Even as her husband struggled with the agitated passenger, she barely looked up from "The Richest Man in Babylon," the book she was reading.

"The woman sitting in front of us was very upset and asked me how I could just sit there reading," Katie Hayden said. "Bob's been shot at. He's been stabbed. He's taken knives away. He knows how to handle those situations. I figured he would go up there and step on somebody's neck, and that would be the end of it. I knew how that situation would end. I didn't know how the book would end."

A mystery man wielding a samurai sword came to the aid of two detectives last night, as the police officers faced off with a gang of thieves attempting to commit a robbery. The outnumbered, unarmed detectives were in the midst of a violent confrontation with the robbers when a mystery man came to their rescue, brandishing a 3-foot samurai sword. The scene took place in the Laygate neighborhood of South Shields, a town in the Tyneside region of England.

The two police officers had apprehended the criminals as they were about to break in to a house, and were engaged in hand to hand combat with the gang, who wielded chains and hammers. One of the thieves suddenly pulled a knife on the police officers, apparently intending to further escalate the violence. It was at this point that the mystery man suddenly appeared.

The anonymous man ran forward, wielding a samurai sword and shouting "Leave him alone, he's a police officer!" The mystery man then charged at the criminals, slashing his samurai sword wildly back and forth, and wounding at least one of the robbers.

The surprised and disoriented gang of robbers panicked and began to disperse. The police officers were able to arrest three thieves amidst the chaos, including one whom the mystery man had trivially wounded on the arm during the samurai sword attack. The mystery man and his samurai sword disappeared as soon as the gang started to break up.

The police officers gave this description of the mystery man: Caucasian, mustachioed, in his 40s, of medium build, and height approximately 5' 10". No information, such as suspected origin or place of purchase, has been released about the samurai sword.

Although the mystery man was helping the police, local Detective Inspector Peter Bent, of South Sheilds CID, said that he did not condone the actions of the mystery man. Brent said "There is no doubt this person assisted the police," but added that "It needs to be said we cannot condone vigilantism or people running around with swords or weapons. It will be up to the Crown Prosecution Service whether they see his actions as justified or going beyond reasonable force."

The three apprehended robbers, who were aged 29, 42, and 43, have been charged with aggravated burglary. One is scheduled to stand before South Tyneside magistrates on an additional charge of attempted wounding with intent to resist arrest

BURLESON, Texas ? Youngsters in a suburban Fort Worth school district are being taught not to sit there like good boys and girls with their hands folded if a gunman invades the classroom, but to rush him and hit him with everything they have: books, pencils, legs and arms.

"Getting under desks and praying for rescue from professionals is not a recipe for success," said Robin Browne, a major in the British Army reserve force and an instructor for Response Options, the company providing the training to the Burleson schools.That kind of fight-back advice is all but unheard of in schools, and some people fear it will get children killed.But school officials in Burleson said they are drawing on lessons learned from a string of disasters such as Columbine in 1999 and the Amish schoolhouse attack in Pennsylvania last week.

The school system in the suburb of about 26,000 is believed to be the first in the nation training its teachers and students to fight back, Browne said.

In Burleson, which has 10 schools and about 8,500 students, the training covers various emergencies, such as tornadoes, fires and situations in which first aid is required. Among the lessons: Use a belt as a sling for broken bones, and shoelaces make good tourniquets.

Students also are instructed not to comply with a gunman's orders.

Browne recommends students and teachers "react immediately to the sight of a gun by picking up anything and everything and throwing it at the head and body of the attacker and making as much noise as possible. Go toward him as fast as we can and bring [the gunman] down."

Response Options trains students and teachers to "lock onto the attacker's limbs and use their body weight," Browne said. Everyday classroom objects, such as paperbacks and pencils, can become weapons.

"We show [students and teachers] ... they can win," he said. "The fact that someone walks into a classroom with a gun does not make them a god. Five or six seventh-grade kids and a 95-pound art teacher can basically challenge, bring down and immobilize a 200-pound man with a gun."

The fight-back training parallels a change in thinking that has occurred since the Sept. 11 attacks, when United Flight 93 made it clear the usual advice during a hijacking ? don't try to be a hero, and no one will get hurt ? no longer holds. Passengers aboard that flight rushed the hijackers, and the plane crashed into a Pennsylvania field instead of into its presumed target in Washington, D.C.

Similarly, women and youngsters are often told by safety experts to kick, scream and claw their way out during a rape attempt or a child-snatching.

In 1998 in Springfield, Ore., a 17-year-old high-school wrestling star with a bullet in his chest helped stop a rampage by tackling Kip Kinkel, 15, a freshman who had opened fire in the cafeteria. Kinkel killed two students and his parents, and wounded 22 other people. The wrestler survived.

Hilda Quiroz, of the National School Safety Center, a nonprofit advocacy group in California, said she knows of no other school system in the country offering fight-back training and finds the strategy at Burleson troubling.

"If kids are saved, then this is the most wonderful thing in the world. If kids are killed, people are going to wonder who's to blame," she said.

"How much common sense will a student have in a time of panic?"

Terry Grisham, spokesman for the Tarrant County, Texas, Sheriff's Department, said he, too, had concerns, though he had not seen details of the program.

"You're telling kids to do what a tactical officer is trained to do, and they have a lot of guns and ballistic shields," he said. "If my school was teaching that, I'd be upset, frankly." Burleson straddles Tarrant and Johnson counties.Some students said they appreciated the training.

"It's harder to hit a moving target than a target that is standing still," said Jessica Justice, 14, who received the training in the summer during freshman orientation at Burleson High.

William Lassiter, manager of the North Carolina-based Center for Prevention of School Violence, said past attacks indicate that fighting back, at least by teachers and staff, has merit.

"At Columbine, teachers told students to get down and get on the floors, and gunmen went around and shot people on the floors," Lassiter said. "I know [fighting back] ... sounds chaotic and I know it doesn't sound like a great solution, but it's better than leaving them there to get shot."

Lassiter questioned, however, whether students should be included in the fight-back training: "That's going to scare the you-know-what out of them."

Most of the freshman class at Burleson's high school underwent instruction during orientation; eventually, all Burleson students will receive some training, even the elementary-school children.

"We want them to know if Miss Valley says to run out of the room screaming, that is exactly what they need to do," said Jeanie Gilbert, district director of emergency management. She said students and teachers should have "a fighting chance in every situation."

Burleson High School Principal Paul Cash said he has received no complaints from parents about the training. Stacy Vaughn, president of the Parent-Teacher Organization at Norwood Elementary in Burleson, supports the program.

"I feel like our kids should be armed with the information that these types of possibilities exist," Vaughn said.

A decade ago, Jim Ray brought together a champion martial artist, a former Navy Seal and a police-weapons specialist to draft designs for what he hoped would be the perfect pocketknife.

But the high-tech knives the team created were never meant to whittle sticks. Instead, the team produced knives whose blades could be flicked open with one finger faster than the widely outlawed switchblade -- but were still perfectly legal. "Nobody wanted to call it a weapon" at the start, says Mr. Ray, a former proprietor of a North Carolina tourist shop. But eventually, he adds, "that changed." And soon Mr. Ray and the company he formed, Masters of Defense Inc., were marketing the blades' utility when "shooting is just not appropriate."

Mr. Ray was a pioneer in a technological revolution that has transformed "tactical" knives -- originally used in military combat -- into a $1-billion-a-year consumer business, aimed at just about anyone in the market for a small knife. These 21st century pocketknives, with their curved, perforated or serrated blades and ergonomic grips, can inflict deadly damage, but they are also compact, easily concealed and virtually unregulated.

In March, a monthly FBI bulletin alerted law-enforcement agents nationwide to "the emerging threats" posed by the knives. Though there are no statistics on how many crimes have involved tactical-style knives, the FBI says knife-related crimes have edged up, to 15.5 percent in 2004 from 15 percent in 2000. In that time, violent crime in general dropped 4.1 percent.

The knives' popularity has been a boon to some retailers. Mike Janes, owner of Second Amendment Sports, a hunting, fishing and camping superstore in Bakersfield, Calif., says that knife sales have been climbing an average of 25 percent a year in the past decade and that 75 percent of the pocketknives he sells are tactical. "Are you tacti-cool? That's what we say down here," Mr. Janes says.

Dave Vanderhoff, who runs U.S. Martial Arts in Clifford, N.J., recently taught a knife-fighting class that included a judge, a banker, a nurse, a young woman with a belly ring and a French chef from Manhattan. And Spyderco Inc., for example, makes a tactical knife that, when folded, masquerades as a credit card.

But the marketing techniques for some of the new pocketknives aren't so mainstream. Cold Steel Inc. makes the 3/4-ounce "Urban Pal," which has a 1.5-inch blade. "The Urban Pal should be standard equipment for survival in today's urban jungle," its Web site says.

Lawyers for the tactical-knife industry have persuaded government officials that even minor manual movement -- no matter how enhanced by levers and springs -- separates the knives from switchblades, which require pressing a button on the handle to flip open the blade. "We have to resist the application of the 1950s switchblade laws to the new technology," says lawyer Daniel Lawson, a knife collector in Pittsburgh who represents the tactical-knife industry. Thirty-seven states now outlaw switchblades, partly because they developed a cult following among teenagers in the 1950s. But, says David Kowalski, a former knife magazine editor and a spokesman for the industry, tactical knifes have remained legal because "the laws across the U.S. are a mishmash because (legislators) really don't know anything about knives."

Modern tactical knives are rooted in the 1980s, when some martial artists in the U.S. became practitioners of a Filipino style of knife-fighting. An early innovator was Ernest R. Emerson, a martial artist and custom knife builder. In 1995, Oregon's Benchmade Knife Co. collaborated with Mr. Emerson to mass produce the Closed Quarters Combat 7 knife. It opened quickly, locked in place and could be closed with one hand.

Mr. Emerson, 51 years old, says he insisted on selling that knife for $159, believing the high price, performance and custom look would give it cachet. The knife was a hit, and competition got hot. Mr. Emerson formed his own company in 1997 and says annual sales rose to about $10 million last year from $800,000 at the start.

Worried that they might face regulatory scrutiny, makers of the new-style pocketknives formed the American Knife and Tool Institute. The trade group credits U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, with persuading U.S. Customs in 2001 to stop seizing shipments of one-hand-opening tactical knives that some investigators considered switchblades. A spokesman for Sen. Wyden, Andrew Blotky, says he can't confirm the senator's involvement.

Soon the upstarts who dominated the self-defense market were jolting the traditional knife industry. Buck Knife Co., a staple among sportsmen; W.R. Case & Sons Cutlery, famed for its collectible pen knives; and Leatherman Tool Group Inc., which makes pocket-sized tool kits, have all introduced tactical knives since 2003.

Leatherman Tool Group jumped on the tactical-knife bandwagon in 2005, introducing a full line of tactical-type knives. The most prominent feature on its knives is the "Blade Launcher" mechanism, which lets the user flip a menacing-looking blade out of its handle with lightning speed. Yet it also has a bottle-cap opener, a nod to Leatherman's heritage.

Not all makers of tactical knives agree on how to market them. Buck, for example, boasts in marketing materials about the "stopping power" of its tactical knives and bills its "Bones" knife as "bad to the bone."

But Tom Arrowsmith, chief executive of W.R. Case, accuses competitors of "weaponizing" the pocketknife and says it's an approach his company won't take. He does concede, though, that customer demand has prompted his company, a 117-year-old maker of pretty penknives, to offer a line of one-hand-opening knives with tactical features.

The blades on most of the new pocketknives are less than four inches long, the maximum length that passengers were permitted to carry onto U.S. airlines before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. In 2004, the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks concluded that the hijackers in those attacks used short knives -- not box cutters -- to seize control of the planes. At the Pennsylvania crash site, 14 badly damaged knife parts were collected, and at least half have tactical-knife characteristics. But the FBI cautions that it can't be sure those parts are from knives that belonged to the hijackers.

Technology has made blade length almost irrelevant. The city of Atlanta prohibits people from carrying pocketknives in public with blades longer than two inches. Yet, in a widely publicized case, ex-Marine Thomas Autry used a two-inch blade in May to kill one mugger and wound another when he was confronted by five assailants armed with a shotgun and a .38-caliber pistol.

"Clearly we are seeing wounds you would expect from a bigger blade from what victims say was a small knife," says Andrew Ulrich, a Boston Medical Center emergency-room doctor.

Mr. Janes of Second Amendment Sports is one of several retailers who have added knife training to their businesses. He says "this large influx of people carrying 'tactical folders' didn't know how to use them."

Four victims, one in critical condition, were admitted to the Regional Medical Center, the main trauma hospital for the Memphis area. Four others were less badly hurt and treated at another hospital. Seven of the victims were stabbed, while another suffered heat-related symptoms while being chased, police said.

Another person was threatened, resulting in the nine charges against Ingram, The Commercial Appeal reported.

Ingram, chasing one victim into the store's parking lot, was subdued by Chris Cope, manager of a financial services office in the same small shopping center, Memphis Police Sgt. Vince Higgins said.

Cope said he grabbed a 9mm semiautomatic pistol from his pickup truck when he saw the attacker chasing the victim "like something in a serial killer movie."

"When he turned around and saw my pistol, he threw the knife away, put his hands up and got on the ground," Cope told The Associated Press. "He saw my gun and that was pretty much it."Police arrived within minutes and took the Ingram into custody.

"He just kept saying, 'I'm insane. I wish I was never born' and that kind of stuff," Cope said.

The attack started in an employee area of the Schnucks supermarket on the outskirts of Memphis and no customers were involved, Higgins said.

Police said two large kitchen knives used in the attack were found at the scene.

Witness Frank Rector said the attacker held a knife high in a stabbing position as he chased a victim into the parking lot. The victim, Rector said, "was circling, trying to get away from him."

The ages of the victims were not immediately released. Higgins and a company spokeswoman said all the victims were employees of the store.

The spokeswoman said officials from the St. Louis-based company were on their way to the scene.

Higgins said police were pulling into the parking lot as Cope was confronting Ingram.

"We commend him," Higgins said. "But we don't encourage people to take that kind of risk. He could have been hurt."

About 15 customers were in Gomez Grocery in the city's East Germantown section when the gunman walked in Sunday afternoon, jumped atop a small freezer and pointed the gun at store owner Eddie Gomez, police said.

Customer Thomas Santana, who is 5-foot-4, grabbed the 6-foot-1 gunman from behind when he was on the freezer, and with help from Gomez knocked him down.

The suspect, 23-year-old Thomas Reyes, was in stable condition at a hospital, and was expected to be charged with attempted murder, attempted robbery and other charges, authorities said.

Three men who tried to mount a home invasion in Stone Oak this morning were greeted not by the terrified homeowner they expected, but by a handgun wielding resident who blasted away, killing one of the would-be invaders and leaving the two others running for their lives, 1200 WOAI's Michael Board reported today.

It started shortly before three in the 25000 block of Summit Creek, near Hardy Oak, when Leonard Packham heard several pickups pull in front of his home. Packham grabbed a handgun, and perched at the top of the stars with a good view of the front door, the gun locked and loaded.

When the intruders started trying to kick in the door, Packham started firing. Police estimate he got off eight rounds before the attempt to kick in the front door ended. Police followed a trail of blood a a block away to the intersection of Summit Crest and Summit Creek. That's where they found one of the would-be home invaders dead. He had been shot three times.

Police Sergeant Gabe Trevino says Texas law is clear in cases like this.

"You are allowed to use deadly force in defending your property from imminent attack in the nighttime," he said, adding that bad guys don't have to come into your house before you can shoot.

"There's that old story that if you shoot someone you should drag them inside the house, that's not true," Travino said.

Trevino said you can even open fire at nighttime house burglars who are in the process of running away.

Two pickup trucks, apparently abandoned by the men, were found in Packham's front yard.

Detectives say there were no lights on and no cars in the driveway, and point out that the men rang the doorbell before starting to kick in the door, indicating the trio may have thought the house was empty. Trevino says the area of far north San Antonio has seen 'its fair share' of burglaries.

Trevino said the district attorney's office will make a final determination of charges. He said a second man was also in the house with a gun trained on the front door, but its not known whether that man fired. Detectives say there appears to have been nothing inside the house that would have singled it out for attack, and no apparnet connection between Packham or his roommate and the trio.

Trevino said Packham and the other man both called 911 before the shooting to report men trying to break into their home.

(AP) - MENLO PARK, California-They may sport love handles and Ivy League degrees, but every two weeks some Silicon Valley techies turn into vicious street brawlers in a real-life, underground fight club.

Kicking, punching and swinging every household object imaginable - from frying pans and tennis rackets to pillowcases stuffed with soda cans - they beat each other mercilessly in a garage in this bedroom community south of San Francisco.

Then, bloodied and bruised, they limp back to their desks in the morning.

"When you get beat down enough, it becomes a very un-macho thing," said Shiyin Siou, 34, a Santa Clara software engineer and three-year veteran of the clandestine fights. "But I don't need this to prove I'm macho - I'm macho enough as it is."

Inspired by the 1999 film "Fight Club," starring Brad Pitt and Ed Norton, underground bare-knuckle brawling clubs have sprung up across the country as a way for desk jockeys and disgruntled youths to vent their frustrations and prove themselves.

"This is as close as you can get to a real fight, even though I've never been in one," the soft-spoken Siou said.

Despite his reserved demeanor, he daydreams about inflicting pain on an attacker. "I have fantasies about it," he said.

In recent months, police in New Jersey and Pennsylvania have broken up fight clubs involving teens and preteens who posted videos of their bloody battles online.

Earlier this month in Arlington, Texas, a high school student who didn't want to participate was beaten so badly that he suffered a brain hemorrhage and broken vertebrae. Six teenagers were arrested after DVDs of the fight appeared for sale online.

Adult groups are more likely to fly under the radar of authorities.

Menlo Park police hadn't heard about the local club and said they wouldn't be likely to take action because the fights are on private property between consenting adults. That could change if someone complains or is sent to a hospital, police said.

Gints Klimanis, a 37-year-old software engineer and martial arts instructor, started the invitation-only "Gentlemen's Fight Club" in Menlo Park in 2000 after his no-holds-barred sessions with a training partner grew to more than a dozen people. Most participants are men working in the high-tech industry.

"You get to be a superhero for a night," Klimanis said. "We have to go to work every day. We're constantly told to buy things we don't need, and just for a couple hours we have the freedom to do what we want to do."

The only protective equipment used is fencing and hockey masks. Several fighters have suffered broken noses, ribs and fingers.

Men involved in fight clubs often carry bottled-up violent impulses learned in childhood from video games, cartoons and movies, said Michael Messner, a University of Southern California sociology and gender studies professor.

"Boys have these warrior fantasies picked up from popular culture, and schools sort of force that out of them," he said. In these fantasies, "The good guys always resort to violence, and they always get the glory and the women."

There is also a sadomasochistic thread running through underground fight clubs, said Michael Kimmel, a sociology professor at Stony Brook University in New York.

"Real-life fight clubs are the male version of the girls who cut themselves," he said. "All day long these guys think they're the captains of the universe, technical wizards. They're brilliant but empty.

"They want to feel differently. They want to get hit, they want to feel something real."

Five-year fight club veteran Dinesh Prasad, 32, a heavily tattooed Santa Clara engineer, said he once broke a rib in a match but never complained to his fellow combatants. He also recently skipped his first wedding anniversary to attend a fight rather than drive to Los Angeles, where his wife is finishing law school.

"I came here to get over my fear of fighting, and it's working," he said. "I'm much tougher than I was five years ago. I'm not at the level of these other guys, but if things were to get tough, I can get tough, too."

A former Marine turned the tables on his attackers, killing one and wounding another with a knife as they tried to rob him, police said.

Thomas Autry was walking to his girlfriend's home from his job waiting tables at a restaurant in Midtown Atlanta around 11 p.m. Monday when he was approached by five people in a car, Atlanta police detective Danny Stephens said.

Autry began running down the street yelling for help as four people in the car got out and chased him. One of the attackers had a shotgun and another had a pistol, Stephens said.

The suspects eventually caught up with Autry. But Autry, who managed to pull a knife out of his backpack, kicked the shotgun out of one of the attacker's hands. He then stabbed a teenage girl who jumped on him and a man who attacked him.

The suspects ran back to their car and drove off.

Police found them later at a hospital, where the teenage girl, who was pregnant, was pronounced dead. Another man was in critical condition, Stephens said.

Stephens credited Autry's military training with helping him fend off his attackers, who are suspected of having committed other robberies in the area over the last week.

"I would say he had to do what he had to do to stop the threat," Stephens said. "You can tell his training kicked in and he knew what to do."

The suspects will face robbery and aggravated assault charges, Stephens said. With the suspects in custody, police now expect to solve other recent robberies.

"One of these guys confessed to me that they were robbing people all week long," he said.

Autry, who will not be charged, suffered a cut to his hand and a bruise on his chest, Stephens said. Stephens also said Autry was very remorseful over the incident.

SAN FRANCISCO - A man fought off a machete-armed assailant Wednesday afternoon in La Honda, sending both to the hospital, police said.

The San Mateo County Sheriff's Office arrested Samuel Bakalian, 19, of Wyoming, for attempted murder. Bakalian, who was wanted in his home state for a car theft dating to March 11, had been camping near the 8700 block of La Honda Road, Lt. Lisa Williams said.

At around 10:10 a.m., Williams said, "the caretaker at the Creekside [Apartments] had told him that he needed to leave; as he turned and walked away, Samuel hit him over the head with a machete."

The caretaker turned and struck out at his attacker with a small knife he was carrying, and a knife fight ensued, Williams said. Neither has life-threatening injuries, though Bakalian was injured in the face and head and was airlifted to a hospital to receive medical care. The caretaker was transported via ambulance.

Bakalian is in custody at the hospital and will be brought to court when his injuries have been attended to, Williams said. She did not know if he was intoxicated at the time of the attack.

Attempted rapist learns a hard lesson The girl wrestled free, grabbed a pen and stabbed the man in the groin; she then kneed him in the face.

An attempted rapist is sure to be a little sore after his most recent attempt. It was a brazen attack. The 16-year-old said the man followed her from the bus stop at Wilson High Friday morning, then he tried to pin her hands behind her back and unbutton her pants.

Neighbors are shocked. "There's people continually here, and to have that happen in the middle of the day, I just can't believe it," said Greg Sherwood.

However, the perpetrator paid for his attempt. The girl wrestled free, grabbed a pen and stabbed the man in the groin. Then, while he was doubled over from the pain, she kneed him in the face.

Barb Higgins uses the school's track and said she'll think twice before going out for a run.

The suspect is Latino, in his mid 30's, about 5'4" tall with a stocky build. He was dressed in all dark clothing.

An armed assailant wearing a black ninja-style mask was shot to death by a 68-year-old man Monday after the attacker jumped the man's wife outside their home and chased her inside, police said.

The shooting happened about 7:30 a.m. at the end of Sunset Drive on the east side of town.

Sandra Phillips, 64, was about to take the couple's two Wheaton terrier dogs for a walk when the masked man, dressed all in black and wearing black gloves, grabbed her outside her garage, police said. The woman struggled, broke away and ran screaming into the house, with the attacker in pursuit.

After being raped inside her Germantown home by a stranger yesterday afternoon, a woman persuaded her attacker to let her take her toddler upstairs - and when she came back down, she had a knife.

Her attacker, a 51-year-old man whose name was withheld, was in critical condition last night at Albert Einstein Medical Center with a chest wound.

Police said the events leading up to the rape and the woman fighting back began about 2:30 p.m., when the man approached the woman's home in the 200 block of West Haines Street and asked if he could rake her leaves.

The 30-year-old woman, who was home alone with her 2-year-old child, declined, said Capt. John Darby of the Special Victims Unit.

The man then asked for a glass of water, which made the woman suspicious. She tried to shut the door, but the man forced his way inside and raped her at knifepoint, Darby said.

Darby said the woman then begged her attacker to allow her to put her child in an upstairs bedroom.

When she returned, she rammed the knife into the man's chest.

"After the man was injured, he ran a distance on the block and collapsed," Darby said.

Darby said police found the man on the ground a short distance from the scene, along with the knife authorities believe he used during the assault. He was bleeding, and was rushed to Einstein.

The woman was treated at an unknown hospital for a small cut on her hand and the sexual assault. Police said the man faces charges of rape and other offenses.

"The good news is that this individual will be in custody and not be a threat to the neighborhood, thanks to this particular woman," Darby said.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Two weeks ago, Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone caused a stir by ridiculing airplane security in a public speech. She derided much of post-9/11 airline security, especially the use of plastic knives instead of metal ones, and said ?a lot of what we do is to make people feel better as opposed to actually achieve an outcome.?

As a foreigner, I know very little about Australian politics. I don't know anything about Senator Vanstone, her politics, her policies, or her party. I have no idea what she stands for. But as a security technologist, I agree 100% with her comments. Most airplane security is what I call ?security theater?: ineffective measures designed to make people feel better about flying.

I get irritated every time I get a plastic knife with my airplane meal. I know it doesn't make me any safer to get plastic. El Al, a company I know takes security seriously, serves in-flight meals with metal cutlery...even in economy class.

Senator Vanstone pointed to wine glasses and HB pencils as potential weapons. She could have gone further. Spend a few minutes on the problem, and you quickly realise that airplanes are awash in potential weapons: belts, dental floss, keys, neckties, hatpins, canes, or the bare hands of someone with the proper training. Snap the extension handle of a wheeled suitcase off in just the right way, and you've got a pretty effective spear. Garrotes can be made of fishing line or dental floss. Shatter a CD or DVD and you'll have a bunch of razor-sharp fragments. Break a bottle and you've got a nasty weapon. Even the most unimaginative terrorist could figure out how to smuggle an 8-inch resin combat knife onto a plane. In my book Beyond Fear, I even explained how to make a knife onboard with a tube of steel epoxy glue.

Maybe people who have watched McGuyver should never be allowed to fly.

The point is not that we can't make air travel safe; the point is that we're missing the point. Yes, the 9/11 terrorists used box cutters and small knives to hijack four airplanes, their attack wasn't about the weapons. The terrorists succeeded because they exploited a flaw in the US response policy. Prior to 9/11, standard procedure was to cooperate fully with the terrorists while the plane was in the air. The goal was to get the plane onto the ground, where you can more easily negotiate. That policy, of course, fails completely when faced with a suicide terrorists.

And more importantly, the attack was a one-time event. We haven't seen the end of airplane hijacking ? there was a conventional midair hijacking in Colombia in September ? but the aircraft-as-missile tactic required surprise to be successful

This is not to say that we should give up on airplane security, either. A single cursory screening is worth it, but more extensive screening rapidly reaches the point of diminishing returns. Most criminals are stupid, and are caught by a basic screening system. And just as important, the very act of screening is both a reminder and a deterrent. Terrorists can't guarantee that they will be able to slip a weapon through screening, so they probably won't try.

But screening will never be perfect. We can't keep weapons out of prisons, a much more restrictive and controlled environment. How can we have a hope of keeping them off airplanes? The way to prevent airplane terrorism is not to spend additional resources keeping objects that could fall into the wrong hands off airplanes. The way to improve airplane security is to spend those resources keeping the wrong hands from boarding airplanes in the first place, and to make those hands ineffective if they do.

Exactly two things have made airline travel safer since 9/11: reinforcing the cockpit door, and passengers who now know that they may have to fight back. Everything else ? all that extra screening, those massive passenger profiling systems ? is security theatre.

If, as Opposition leader Kim Beazley said, Senator Vanstone should be sacked for speaking the truth, then we're all much less secure. And if, as Federal Labor's homeland security spokesman Arch Bevis said, her comments made a mockery of the Howard government's credibility in the area of counter-terrorism, then maybe Howard's government doesn't have any credibility.

We would all be a lot safer if we took all the money we're spending on enhanced passenger screening and applied it to intelligence, investigation, and emergency response. This is how to keep the wrong hands off airplanes and, more importantly, how to make us secure regardless of what the terrorists are planning next ? even if it has nothing to do with airplanes.

Bruce Schneier is the CTO of Counterpane Internet Security, and the author of Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World. He can be reached at www.schneier.com. This article is reproduced with permission. Copyright rests with the author.

Article16 December 2004 Knife culture? Cut the crapThere is little evidence for a 'rising tide of knife crime' in Britain.

by Brendan O'Neill

Is Britain in the grip of a 'knife culture'? According to the Home Office, the Department for Education and Skills, the Association of Chief Police Officers and just about every front page of every newspaper, it is.

The police speak of a rising tide of knife crime, where everyone from misguided schoolkids to inner-city hoods are apparently arming themselves with flick knives, pen knives, machetes and swords. The last thing David Blunkett did before stepping down as home secretary was to propose new measures to 'tackle knife crime', including banning under-18s from buying them and allowing headteachers to frisk pupils for anything with a sharp edge (in the event, however, Blunkett failed to turn up to yesterday's launch of the 'fight against knives', instead leaving it to his junior Home Office minister Caroline Flint). In effect, as one report put it, the government has decided to 'wage war on knives' (1).

It started with dire warnings from the cops. In November, London's Metropolitan Police expressed 'fears' about a worsening knife problem in the capital (2). The Met had already unveiled Operation Blunt, a campaign against the menace of knives, which included trialling a metal detector at Hammersmith bus station in west London in an attempt to catch out knife-carriers. Also in November, following claims that more children are bringing knives into school, then education secretary (now new home secretary) Charles Clarke said airport-style X-ray machines might be introduced in schools too, if he thought it was 'the only way to tackle knife-carrying' (3).

In December, the relatives of stabbing victims - including the parents of 14-year-old schoolboy Luke Walmsley, who was murdered in a school corridor in January 2003 - launched a campaign called 'Knives Destroy Lives'. They called on the government to introduce a five-year minimum jail term for carrying an object with a blade longer than three inches, and a six-month minimum jail term for carrying a blade shorter than three inches. They also warned, according to the Independent, that there could be 'civil unrest' if the government didn't do more to tackle the problem of knives (4).

It didn't take the government long to get involved. Blunkett announced a raft of proposals to tackle knife crime (even though he admits that 'the number of incidents involving knives remains low, [but] I share the concern of the public about this issue'). The Metropolitan Police and others are organising a conference to cast a 'Spotlight on Knife Culture in the UK', because 'the time has undoubtedly come for the government, law enforcement agencies, schools and social services throughout the UK to come together and formulate strategies to reduce knife violence and prevent further tragedies from occurring.' (5)

Eventually even prime minister Tony Blair expressed concern about Britain's 'knife problem', telling ITV1's This Morning that: 'You now get a mandatory five-year sentence if you carry a gun. And I think some of these people are switching to knives, which is why we are now looking at how do you make that tougher.' (6)

What's going on? How did knives become the biggest issue in British politics? There have been various knife panics over the past 10 years - but now, in the space of six weeks, knives seem to have been fully transformed from everyday objects that we use at home and work into evil things, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake and potentially threatening civil unrest. Yet the evidence for a 'rising tide' of knife crime is thin indeed. The anti-knife campaign, it seems, has little to do with fighting crime, and much more to do with launching a moral crusade against something, anything, that can make the authorities feel useful and perhaps even a little virtuous.

When it comes to the facts and stats of knife crime, the authorities can't seem to keep their story straight. The furore over the so-called knife culture was triggered by London's Metropolitan Police at the end of November. The London Evening Standard reported the police's concerns about the knife culture 'spreading in London', claiming that '361 incidents involving knives' are recorded every week in the city, representing a rise of 13 per cent from last year (7).

Yet a Met spokesperson tells me that, 'There has been little fluctuation in the number of offences involving knives over the past three years'. In the year April 2001 to March 2002, there were 18,854 offences involving knives in London, accounting for 1.78 per cent of all reported crime. From April 2002 to March 2003, there were 19,107 offences involving knives, 1.77 per cent of all reported crime. The latest figures, covering the 10 months from April 2003 to January 2004, show that there were 17,362 offences involving knives, 1.96 per cent of reported crime.

So where did that claim in November come from, of 361 knife offences taking place every week in London representing a 13 per cent rise on last year? 'I don't know where it's from', says the spokesperson. If one does the sums, it seems that, if there are 361 offences involving a knife in London each week, that is actually little different from previous years. The 2001/2002 figure of 18,854 offences involving knives works out at 362 offences a week; the 2002/2003 figure of 19,107 translates into 367 a week. So 361 seems fairly ordinary, rather than evidence of a 'spreading knife culture', or even a 13 per cent rise.

What's more, the Met's category of knife offences apparently covers everything from cars being scratched with a knife to assault and murder with a knife. Even more strikingly, for all the headlines and handwringing about knife-assisted robberies and murders, it turns out that a 'knife offence' does not necessarily involve the use of a knife. According to the Met spokesperson, the Met's stats on knife crime include 'all offences where a knife has featured in some way'. 'Many of the offences?do not involve the actual use of a knife. [It] includes offences where a knife has been discovered by police during the investigation of another offence - for example, a knife discovered on a person arrested for shoplifting'. So stealing from a shop can become a 'knife crime' if the shoplifter had a knife somewhere on his person but didn't use it.

Is a breakdown of these 'knife' offences available, to show how many are minor, how many are major, and how many involved the 'actual use of a knife'? Apparently not. We do know, however, that of the 18,854 knife offences in London in 2001/2002, 70 were homicides, and of the 19,107 knife offences in 2002/2003, 67 were homicides. In both years, the other 18,000-odd offences cover everything from car-scratching to threatening behaviour to assault to offences not actually involving the use of a knife but where a knife was later discovered.

The Home Office, which compiles crime stats for all of Britain, not just London, likewise seems to make conflicting statements. In the year 2002/2003, a total of 1,007 homicides were recorded across all of the UK (this is higher than most years because the 172 victims of Dr Harold Shipman, Britain's first serial killer GP, were added, although they were murdered at various times over the past 20 years). In November 2004, according to one report, Home Office minister Hazel Blears claimed that of these 1,007 victims, 272 were killed in knife attacks. But a Home Office spokesman tells me it is misleading to refer to these as knife murders; they are categorised under 'homicide by a sharp instrument', which includes not just knives but 'broken bottles and glasses'. Perhaps the government should consider banning bottles as well as blades.

In a population of 60million, 272 killings with a sharp instrument a year seems a fairly low figure. Of course we'd all like it to be lower still, but will metal detectors in bus stations, more stop-and-search laws and the regular frisking of schoolkids do anything to tackle knife killings? Those suggesting such measures overlook one fact: at least as many murders, and usually more, take place in domestic settings as they do on dodgy street corners.

Of the 1,007 murders by all methods in the UK in 2002/2003, 410 took place in a domestic setting, between family members, friends or acquaintances, compared with 414 listed as 'stranger' murders - and it should be remembered that in 2002/2003, the stranger category included, as usual, murders where the relationship between the perpetrator and victim was unknown and, unusually, Shipman's 172 victims, where the relationship was classified as a 'commercial, business or professional relationship, where the suspect killed a customer or client in the course of carrying out their occupation', which also falls under the 'stranger' heading. In most years, there are more family or acquaintance murders than stranger murders (8).

And according to one Home Office report, which analyses the Scottish experience, around 60 per cent of murders with a sharp instrument take place indoors, usually in a domestic setting. The logical conclusion, then, if restricting access to knives is seriously seen as a means of reducing the murder rate, is to make all of us empty out our kitchen draws and ban knives from the home.

In other parts of Britain, the apparent rise in knife crime is itself the result of the authorities' obsession with knives. At the end of November the Scotsman reported that 'Knife crime soars by 50 per cent in four years'. The paper said: 'The number of people caught carrying knives and other deadly weapons in Edinburgh has risen by 50 per cent, shocking new figures today revealed?. A total of 430 crimes involving possession of weapons were recorded last year, compared to 283 in 1999 - an increase of 51.9 per cent' (9).

But there seems a simple explanation for this: Scottish police have prioritised searching the general public for knives, above just about anything else. As a spokesman for Lothian and Borders Police said, the 50 per cent rise is the result of the police being more 'proactive'; for example, they have 'extensively used stop-and-search powers' on the streets of Edinburgh and elsewhere in their war on knives (10). They went looking for knives, and they found them. Surely, this is less evidence of 'soaring knife crime' than of a soaring obsession with knife crime. It also suggests that talk of a knife culture can become a self-fulfilling prophecy - the more knives are seen as a great evil, the more the police look for them, and the more the police find them, the more we are told we face a great evil. We will no doubt see a similar effect in London when the Met rolls out Operation Blunt to cover all boroughs.

What of the claims that more schoolchildren are carrying knives? Here, too, reports have been heavy on hysteria and light on evidence. Media reports have quoted from two surveys - last year's Youth Survey 2003, conducted by the polling company Mori for the Youth Justice Board, and this year's Youth Survey 2004, again conducted by Mori for the Youth Justice Board. Both surveys have been quoted out of context to paint an unrealistic picture of flick knife-wielding schoolkids.

The first thing to note is that the Youth Survey is just that - a survey of young people's experiences, where around 5,000 school pupils aged between 11 and 16 self-complete questionnaires on their experiences and perceptions of crime. So it needs to be read with the usual rider that young teenagers, for various reasons, don't always tell the whole truth and nothing but.

Despite the fact that the Youth Survey 2004 was published in July, some have chosen to quote from last year's survey - perhaps because its figures for the number of schoolchildren who claim to have carried a weapon appear that bit higher. The London Evening Standard reported that, 'A Mori survey last year found that 29 per cent of secondary schoolchildren admitted having carried a knife' (11). Guardian columnist David Aaronovitch repeated these claims on 13 December, writing that 'in a Mori survey for the Youth Justice Board, 29 per cent of 11- to 16-year-old school pupils admitted to having carried a knife - a figure that rose to 62 per cent of pupils excluded from school' (12).

In fact, that part of the 2003 survey is not of secondary schoolchildren in general but of secondary schoolchildren who claim to have committed an offence. The survey interviewed a total of 5,549 school-attending and excluded pupils, 1,692 of whom claimed to have committed an offence. And of these 1,692, when asked 'What offences have you committed in the last year?', 29 per cent of school-attending pupils and 62 per cent of excluded pupils said 'carried a knife'. Yet this response of a sample of schoolkids who claim to have committed an offence has been transformed by some into a snapshot of the knife-carrying habits of all schoolkids everywhere.

The reporting of this year's Youth Survey has been equally dubious. The Daily Mirror claimed that 'a Mori poll has revealed that 28 per cent of 11- to 16-year-olds carry knives'; the paper claimed that some 'arm themselves with penknives' while others 'admitted they had flick knives' (13). Yet one of the Mori pollsters who was involved in checking and signing off this year's Youth Survey for the Youth Justice Board tells me that the press coverage has been 'massively misleading'.

In a section titled 'Possession of potential weapons' (note the use of the word 'potential'), it is true that 28 per cent of young people in schools said they had carried some kind of knife 'in the last year'. But 25 per cent of these young people said they had carried a penknife, a fairly harmless device which has been beloved of schoolboys in particular for generations. The Mori pollster tells me the figures have been 'dramatically taken out of context': 'It doesn't mean they are walking around with a knife everyday, it might only have been once. And the vast majority are penknives! They might be going whittling for all we know.' As the Youth Survey itself stated, in a passage that funnily enough was not quoted amidst all the claims of school pupils 'arming' themselves with penknives: 't should be noted that a large proportion of the knives being carried by young people?are penknives, which are, of course, used for a wide variety of innocent purposes.' (14)

Knife culture? What knife culture? The Met can't seem to make its mind up over whether there has been 'no fluctuation' in knife crime in the past three years, or a steep rise. Scottish and other police forces are finding more knives largely because they have made it their job to find more knives. And while there may be isolated incidents of violence, schoolchildren are not, whatever the headlines might say, turning up to class armed with machetes and bad intentions.

Today's anti-knife frenzy is bizarre. Ask yourself - why knives? Why not fists and feet, which have been known to cause serious injury and even murder if used inappropriately (in 2002/2003, 160 people were murdered through 'Hitting, kicking, etc')? Why not 'blunt objects', which were used in 47 murders in 2002/2003? Why not newspapers, which as every football hooligan knows can be folded up to form the 'Millwall brick', hard-edged enough to smash anybody's face in? Or ropes and scarves (there were 68 murders by strangulation in 2002/2003)?

There is little logic to the war on knives, because it has little to do with knives themselves. Rather, this looks like another attempt by the authorities to attach themselves to a cause in a desperate bid to appear caring and right-minded. In the absence of any political vision, or much of a political programme, the government is a sucker for moral crusades, where everything can be reduced to a simple clash between good (those who express concern about knives) and evil (knives). That's one reason why the campaign snowballed so quickly, from the Met's comments in November to the launch of the victims' families campaign in December to Blunkett, Blair and Clarke getting involved; government officials always on the lookout for seemingly simple moral issues were not about to let a campaign against evil knives pass them by.

And if it meant putting a dagger in the heart of rational debate about crime and society, so be it.

(1) First we need to find the knives, David Aaronovitch, Guardian, 14 December 2004

Two teens with guns approached a 40-year-old man at Riverview Avenue and Catalpa Drive early Friday. The man backed away, with outstretched hands.Then things changed swiftly.

The targeted man, Mark Hill, pulled out a Glock 23 handgun ? he has a concealed-carry permit ? and fired several shots, hitting one of the gunmen, a Dayton police report said.

It was Dayton's first shooting by a holder of a concealed weapons permit, according to Sgt. Dennis Chaney.

Police went to the 2000 block of West Riverview about 12:45 a.m. in response to numerous calls about the shooting.

Police found Mark Hill at his residence. He told them he was walking west on Riverview when two teenage males in dark clothing approached him from Catalpa. One shoved him, he turned around and both flashed handguns, a police report said.

Hill "began to back away in a bent-over position with his hands outstretched," according to the report. Then he pulled out a Glock 23, a .40-caliber handgun, and fired, hitting one of the gunmen several times.

The two ran off, the report said.

Shortly after the shooting, a 17-year-old showed up at Good Samaritan Hospital. He was admitted with gunshot wounds to his leg, abdomen and arms, Chaney said. Hospital officials called police.

He was with two 16-year-olds. Police said all three matched the description of the gunmen and a male seen by the man in an alley north of the Riverview and Catalpa during the robbery attempt.

Police arrested the younger teens as they tried to leave the hospital, Chaney said.

The three had shown up in a Jeep Cherokee stolen Thursday on Lakeview Avenue, Chaney said.

"We don't know if they stole it (originally)," Chaney said.

The 16-year-olds were in the Family Court Center, pending delinquency charges of aggravated robbery and receiving stolen property.

Chaney said Hill, who has both a Dayton Firearms Owner's Identification Card and Montgomery County Concealed Carry Card, acted in self-defense.

Dear Diary, For my fiftieth birthday this year, my wife (the dear) purchased a week of personal training at the local health club for me. Although I am still in great shape since playing on my college football team 30 yrs ago, I decided it would be a good idea to go ahead and give it a try.

Called the club and made my reservation with a personal trainer named Belinda, who identified herself as a 26 yr old aerobics instructor and model for athletic clothing and swim wear. My wife seemed pleased with my enthusiasm to get started! The club encouraged me to keep a diary to chart my progress.

MONDAY: Started my day at 6:00am. Tough to get out of bed, but it was well worth it when I arrived at the health club to find Belinda waiting for me. She was something of a Greek goddess -- with blonde hair, dancing eyes and a dazzling white smile.

Woo Hoo!!!!! Belinda gave me a tour and showed me the machines. She took my pulse after 5 minutes on the treadmill. She was alarmed that my pulse was so fast, but I attributed it to standing next to her in her Lycra aerobics outfit. I enjoyed watching the skillful way in which she conducted her aerobics class after my workout today.

Very inspiring, Belinda was encouraging as I did my sit-ups, although my gut was already aching from holding it in the whole time she was around. This is going to be a FANTASTIC week!!

TUESDAY: I drank a whole pot of coffee, but I finally made it out the door. Belinda made me lie on my back and push a heavy iron bar into the air, and then she put weights on it! My legs were a little wobbly on the treadmill, but I made the full mile. Belinda's rewarding smile made it all worthwhile. I feel GREAT!! It's a whole new life for me.

WEDNESDAY: The only way I can brush my teeth is by laying the toothbrush on the counter and moving my mouth back and forth over it. I believe I have a hernia in both pectorals. Driving was OK as long as I didn't try to steer or stop. I parked on top of a GEO in the club parking lot.

Belinda was impatient with me, insisting that my screams bothered other club members. Her voice is a little too perky for early in the morning and when she scolds, she gets this nasally whine that is VERY annoying.

My chest hurt when I got on the treadmill, so Belinda put me on the stair monster. Why the hell would anyone invent a machine to simulate an activity rendered obsolete by elevators? Belinda told me it would help me get in shape and enjoy life. She said some other shit too.

THURSDAY: Belinda was waiting for me with her vampire-like teeth exposed as her thin, cruel lips were pulled back in a full snarl. I couldn't help being a half an hour late; it took me that long to tie my shoes.

Belinda took me to work out with dumbbells. When she was not looking, I ran and hid in the men's room. She sent Lars to find me, then, as punishment, put me on the rowing machine -- which I sank.

FRIDAY: I hate that bitch Belinda more than any human being has ever hated any other human being in the history of the world. Stupid, skinny, anemic little cheerleader.. If there were a part of my body I could move without unbearable pain, I would beat her with it.

Belinda wanted me to work on my triceps. I don't have any triceps. And if you don't want dents in the floor, don't hand me the *&%#(#&**!!@*@ barbells or anything that weighs more than a sandwich.

The treadmill flung me off and I landed on a health and nutritionteacher. Why couldn't it have been someone softer, like the drama coach or the choir director?

SATURDAY: Belinda left a message on my answering machine in her grating, shrilly voice wondering why I did not show up today. Just hearing her made me want to smash the machine with my planner. However, I lacked the strength to even use the TV remote and ended up catching eleven straight hours of the Weather Channel.

SUNDAY: I'm having the Church van pick me up for services today so I can go and thank GOD that this week is over. I will also pray that next year, my wife, will choose a gift for me thatis fun like a root canal or a vasectomy.

Now while I had the pleasure of being one of Corey's training partners this weekend, I know for sure he wasn't talking about any "sweet moves" learned from me. (I on the other hand learned a lot from Dog Corey, though some of that learning was more sweat than sweet )

As an outsider to DBMA and a middle-aged desk jockey (an FMA "practitioner" as opposed to "fighter" in DBMA lingo) I just wanted to chime in and say what an excellent two days of training Crafty put on. He assembled a great group of students, kept the information flowing, and provided real-world applications for the techinques being taught. All-in-all a terrific and fun experience, and one I would heartily recommend to any one who trains in combative arts.

The man who stabbed another man to death Saturday in Millbrae while defending his wife will not face murder charges. Instead, the friends of the dead man may face murder charges since they were committing a felony when he was killed.

Police questioned and released the husband Saturday. The man?s wife was repeatedly hit in the head with The Club, an anti-theft device used to lock car steering wheels, after being asked to buy the three underage men alcohol at Safeway. She is out of the hospital after receiving stitches.

The bizarre Saturday morning incident had police at two crime scenes with two victims. After sorting out evidence, police arrested the friends of Dwayne Beverly, 20, of San Francisco who was stabbed to death. Marco Bolanos, 19, of Sacramento, and Michelle Cardarelli, 18, of Daly City were booked into San Mateo County Jail on attempted murder charges.

However, their charges could include murder when they are arraigned today.

The unidentified man stabbed Beverly in self defense when he found him and his two friends allegedly beating his wife near a bus stop in front of Safeway on El Camino Real in Millbrae. Since Bolanos, Cardarelli and Beverly were committing a felony by allegedly beating the woman, the friends can ultimately be held responsible for Beverly?s death.

Millbrae police Capt. Mike Grogan reports Bolanos and Cardarelli were arrested on charges of attempted murder and murder. However, they were only booked into San Mateo County jail on attempted murder charges, said Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.

Official charges will be filed during their arraignment this morning in San Mateo Superior Court.

The incident leading up to the stabbing still remain foggy.

At about 6:45 a.m., police responded to two reports ? one at the bus stop near Safeway and the other at the Millbrae Avenue overpass.

Police reports indicate Beverly, Bolanos and Cardarelli approached the woman and asked the woman to buy alcohol for them. When she refused, they began beating her with The Club.

Her husband had just dropped the woman off and went into Safeway for a moment. He saw the trio beating his wife when he exited the Safeway. In an act of self defense, the man stabbed the 20-year-old Beverly in the chest, Grogan said.

The three friends drove off, but stopped on Millbrae Avenue when Beverly couldn?t continue to drive due to excessive bleeding.

Both Beverly and the woman were taken to San Francisco General Hospital. Beverly was pronounced dead upon arrival, Grogan said.

Two Daly City teenagers who allegedly attacked a Millbrae couple after they refused to buy them alcohol were arraigned Tuesday on charges of attempted murder, assault and battery for their roles in the Saturday morning incident that left a third accomplice dead from a stab wound.

Authorities say Marco Bolanos, 19, Michelle Cardarelli, 18, and 20-year- old Dwayne Beverly were driving down El Camino Real at 6:45 a.m. after a night of partying when they pulled over at a Safeway supermarket. They asked an unidentified Millbrae couple waiting for a bus to buy them alcohol, said Martin Murray, a San Mateo County prosecutor.

When the couple refused, the three suspects got out of the car and began attacking the man and woman, Murray said. He said it was unclear what words had been exchanged, but the suspects indicated they felt disrespected by the couple.

"It's a senseless crime," Murray said. "You're at a bus stop at 7 a.m. on your way to work. You don't expect that kind of violent reaction. It's not the kind of activity we expect to see in sleepy Millbrae on a Saturday morning."

Murray said Beverly and Bolanos had begun attacking and punching the male victim, who responded by brandishing a 3 1/2-inch pocket knife. He said the suspects then retrieved a Club, a device used to prevent auto thefts.

During the ensuing fight, the male victim, who was hit with the metal club, stabbed Beverly in the chest, authorities said. Sometime during the incident, Bolanos also used the Club against the female victim, hitting her over the head numerous times, Murray said. He said Cardarelli had punched the female victim and held her down while Bolanos attacked her.

A short time after Beverly was stabbed, the three suspects got back into their bronze Toyota Camry and fled with Beverly at the wheel, Murray said. Police found the trio on the Millbrae Avenue overpass at Highway 101 after Beverly collapsed. He was taken to San Francisco General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The female victim was also taken to San Francisco General with head injuries but was released later that day. Her husband, who sustained injuries to his arms, will not be charged in the case, Murray said.

"At this point we don't anticipate filing charges against him unless new information develops," Murray said. "At this point it appears to be self- defense."

Police said they would not release the names of the two victims out of fear for their safety.

"There is some gang-related information we are looking at, possibly that the suspects are affiliated with a gang out of San Francisco," said San Mateo County Sheriff's Lt. Lisa Williams.

Bolanos was arraigned in San Mateo County Superior Court on charges of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and battery. He did not enter a plea. Cardarelli was arraigned on one count of battery and pleaded not guilty Tuesday. Both were assigned attorneys through the county's private defender program.

Bolanos, who faces up to life in prison if found guilty on all counts, was in San Mateo County Jail without bail. The bail for Cardarelli, who faces up four years if convicted, was set at $25,000.

If this thread ever gets the attention it deserves, you know it'll be 6 months before some enterprising tactical wanna-be kinda guy comes out with a stungun on a knife handle and charges $400 bucks! Remember

Sorry Dude, your idea has been done before by Kevin "Mad Dog" McClung, I believe. Some kind of blade trainer wired to a very serious battery to deliver shocks. I know others who spar using burning incense sticks for added motivation.

Woof Guro Crafty, Iam sure this has probably come up on more than one occasion and i looked for a specific thread pertaining, but could not find one. I have had this burning question. To nut shell it .....What does it take to make "DOG BROTHER"?I know that there are progressive ranks along the path IE:dog, c-dog and dog brother.Iam under the impression that fighting in the gatherings IS a requirement please correct me if iam wrong......I however dont believe this is the onley requirement.What else do you look for in choosing and advancing guys along the path of becomming a full on "dog brother"Hope this is taken and asked in the respectful manner in which it was intended. TIA for your time and consideration. TOM

Although many of the Dog Brothers have come out of DBIMA or DBMA instructors, this is NOT necessary in order to become a Dog Brother. If you wish to become a Dog Brother, fight at some of the Gatherings, let the Brothers get to know you, and find someone in the group to present your name to Crafty Dog, Top Dog, or Salty Dog-- by biological reality, the "council of elders"-- and they will take it from there.

The first level is "Dog" one is accepted into the tribe. The next level is "Candidate Dog Brother". At this point, one is showing the level of realization in fighting that we expect of a "Dog Brother". A name is tentatively given. Typically, we look for this level to be maintained for at least three Gatherings. Then one reaches the grand exalted status of "Dog Brother".

NEW YORK (AP) _ A Queens man was sentenced Wednesday to 17 years in prison for fatally stabbing a Manhattan nightclub bouncer who was trying to enforce the city's new public indoor smoking ban.

State Supreme Court Justice Bonnie Wittner sentenced Isaias Umali, who was convicted of first-degree manslaughter on Nov. 16, 2004, in the death of Dana "Shazam" Blake on April 13, 2003. Umali, 33, faced up to 25 years in prison.

Wittner, a judge for more than 20 years, said the 6-inch serrated knife Umali used on Blake, 32, was "the deadliest knife I've ever seen in a courtroom. There can be no other purpose (for the knife) but to injure or kill somebody."

Umali, who was born in the Philippines and lived in Jamaica, Queens, told Wittner that his fatal stabbing of Blake had "devastated" his own life and he has tried to come to terms with the fact that he killed someone.

"I never intended to kill Mr. Blake or even to cause him serious injury," Umali told the judge. "I want to tell the Blake family how deeply sorry I am. My prayers go out to the Blake family."

The dispute that led to the stabbing inside Guernica, a Lower East Side nightclub, began when Blake told a group of Umali's friends that they could not smoke. One kept puffing, and Blake grabbed him to escort him out.

During his trial, Umali testified that he was afraid for the life of his friend, Jonathan Chan, because Blake had Chan's neck in his grasp.

Umali, a student of a Filipino knife-fighting technique called kali, admitted he then stabbed Blake in the groin. The knife thrust pierced the femoral artery, a major blood vessel, and Blake bled to death.

Harold Blake, a brother of the victim and the administrator of his estate, has filed a $550 million lawsuit in Manhattan's state Supreme Court against the nightclub, Umali and the smokers with whom Blake had the dispute.

The smoking ban _ one of the strictest in the nation _ went into effect on March 30, 2003, two weeks before Blake's stabbing death. It prohibits smoking in about 13,000 bars, restaurants, offices, pool halls, bingo parlors and bowling alleys throughout the city

From previous news reports I was under the impression that the murder weapon was never recovered, so I am not sure what knife the judge was refering to. My guess had been a Cold Steel folder, anyone know?

A Queens martial arts expert was convicted of first-degree manslaughter yesterday in the death of a bouncer at a bar in Manhattan's East Village last year.

Isaias Umali, 32, looked shell-shocked when the jury in State Supreme Court declared him guilty in the killing of Dana Blake on April 13, 2003. The panel deliberated less than half a day.

At the time, the incident in the club Guernica grabbed headlines largely because it occurred shortly after the city's ban on smoking in bars took effect.

Blake, 32, got into a dispute with one of Umali's friends, Jonathan Chan, about a cigarette, and Blake grabbed Chan around the neck. Umali, a computer network administrator, stabbed Blake in his upper thigh with a 6-inch-long fold-up knife used in kali, a Filipino martial art that includes knife-fighting.

Umali's defense was that he was trying to stop Blake, who was 6'6" and weighed 366 pounds, from choking Chan.

"He was choking to death, so I ended up going through the crowd, taking out my knife," Umali testified during the trial. "I flipped it open and I stabbed him in the leg. I just wanted him to get off Johnny. Just let him go. I was aiming for his leg."

In his summation, defense attorney Michael Shapiro called Umali "noble" for stepping in to save the life of his friend. His defense was justification. Assistant District Attorney Christina Chuliver told jurors that Umali was "far from noble," instead branding him "a coward."

Prosecutors argued the choking explanation was exaggerated. Chuliver asserted that Umali intended to cause Blake's death by trying to expertly move his knife in a way that would cut arteries."The hardest thing was to find out what was in his mind," one juror, an engineer, said after the verdict. "We could not know if his intent was to kill Dana Blake. But we do know he intended to do him harm."

The juror, who did not want to be identified, said he believed Blake had his hands around Chan's throat but that Chan's life was not in jeopardy.